Life of Fred

My son HATED math until we found Fred. Now he loves to do math and Fred. In fact he begs me to do Fred everyday.

When I first looked at LOF it seemed that people were clearly divided into 2 camps…. you either love it or hate it. I read the reviews on Amazon and based on some of the reviews I felt like I should pre-read them before letting my kids start LOF. We all started in Apples. At first I thought there was no way there was enough math in LOF to make it a stand alone curriculum. It seems to build very slowly in the early elementary books. After reading a number of them I realized the author was doing was focusing each book on one or 2 addition facts, trying to instill those basics solidly and to memory of the child. By the 8th book (honey) the child is expected to know all the multiplication facts. They are asked to make honey cards (flash cards) and practice regularly. Parents are also encouraged to quiz their child in day to day activities (like driving to the store) on the addition and multiplication facts. I found that several of my friends who were using LOF and didn't feel like their children were grasping the concepts were not doing the additional practice times outside the reading time of LOF. I found that when it came to long division I need to give my child a few more practice problems than what was covered in the book as he wasn't remembering what exactly he was suppose to do to get to the answer. But by supplementing a few more problems he remembered the steps and had a good grasp of the concepts.

Once the books get into the middle school/high school levels the amount of math is drastically increased and moves much faster (it's presumed that the child has a solid understanding and foundation from what was covered slowly in the previous books) There are still the entertaining stories about Fred except in the expanded volumes (the expanded books I believe start in Algebra) contain no stories, just practice problems (along the lines of the drill and kill the author is opposed to) to ensure your child understands the math concept. (In other words the Algebra book contains the stores and math situations and the secondary expanded book is just practice problems to supplement the initial volume. The expectation is not that the child will do all the problems in the expanded version but that there are additional problem so the child can do as many as necessary to have a firm understanding of how to do that particular kind of algebra equation). From the beginning the author states that he expects the child to read and figure out what is going on, although that is easy in the early books, it is sometimes extremely difficult in the higher level books, given that there are times he presents a math situation but doesn't explain how to do the math problem until a few pages later (sometimes the next chapter). For some kids their learning style will allow them to study what is happening and figure out how the answer was derived, but if your child is a visual learner who needs to be shown how to do a problem first they are going to have difficulty understanding the concept and may get frustrated. For those who fall in that category, LOF will be a great review and good way to reinforce the concept once they have been taught and learned how to handle the concept being presented.

This program was recommended to me so many times, that I thought we would give it a chance. But my daughter just didn't like it. There wasn't enough to it for her to grasp the concept. It just wasn't for her learning style.

If your student can't get excited about a page full of math drills, or if your child loves to read, you might want to check out LOF. The stories are witty and the mathematical concepts are clear. I like that it demonstrates real-life application of math.

My 7 year old is very resistant to anything that seems to be "school work" or that he doesn't grasp right away, he loves Life of Fred and asks to "do Fred." He does not get frustrated like he does with other curriculum. We use LoF as a stand alone and he is discovering math on his own time ahead of what we have covered in the book. As someone who was math-phobic as a child I love having a math curriculum that is non-threatening and makes math accessible and applicable. As a unschooling/Charlotte Mason type homeschooler, LoF fits in perfectly with our shorter lesson times and child led learning.

We bought life of Fred decimal and percents and life of Fred fractions. They had been rated so highly I was convinced they would be great. The boons gave one or two examples and moved to a completely new concept. Drilling facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication, percents to fractions are completely ignored in life of Fred. You read a story that uses math, and answer a few questions related I. Each chapter. My daughter finished both in 3 months. She enjoyed the stories but it didn't reinforce the concepts needed. We went with rod and staff to fill in the holes before algebra.

We have found this method for teaching math to engage our children and remove the angst that was brewing over math before we started LOF. We haven't found anything yet that we don't like about LOF, and we are currently up to the Intermediate Series with our oldest. The quirky story has been perfect for our boys; they've learned so much other than math even; they have learned things typically not introduced until older ages in traditional math curriculum; and instead of math being a collection of facts and equations you have to memorize, it has taken on a real-life purpose as they have seen Fred use math in everyday circumstances. I have no rating for support, because I have not needed to use it.

A lot of people don't quite understand that in the younger years it is meant to teach concepts and the books are meant to be gone through more than once. You are to practice math facts separately. This can be accomplished through games, flash cards, and everyday life tasks. We even reinforce basic fractions and fraction conversion understanding through cooking. It is a rigorous curriculum without being complicated and boring. It seems too easy to many only because it is explained properly and easy to understand. For most maths it's more important to understand the concept thoroughly through explanation than to do endless problems hoping that the student "gets it" after problem 6,423. I have 2 highly gifted children and 2 average children and they all love it. The older three went from hating math to loving it and my youngest who has only ever done LoF tells everyone that math is her favorite subject. If you feel your child wants or needs extra worksheet practice you can simply get some smile workbooks. It is our only math curriculum and we absolutely love it!!:)

My student struggled daily with so many problems to work in math with no real reason to work them. Life of Fred has made math fun for him. He's able to work independently with no more tears over math!

I found Life of Fred to be a great in between for my daughter. She was hating math and struggling. After many different curriculums, I went with LOF. My daughter loved the stories and enjoyed doing math. We did Apples through Goldfish, but then she couldn't keep up with the math facts and really struggled. I felt like we couldn't move on, because she couldn't get the facts down. If you read one lesson per day, it can move too quickly once you get to learning the facts. We had to stop using LOF at that point and move onto something else.

NOTE: If your child is sensitive LOF may not be good for him/her. Fred's parents are dead. His father was an alcoholic and didn't take care of him. His mother died diving into a pool and in a later book, the rate of her fall is actually a math problem. I found that to be rather morbid.

I have used Life of Fred math with my 10 year old and 14 year old. My 10 year old is thriving with it. One thing I like about Life of Fred is how he introduces advanced concepts on a simple level much earlier than any other math curriculum. For example, he introduces Sigma in one of the elementary books, and my 10 year old totally understands it. It's not really a HARD concept, just not one that is normally introduced at such an early age. Of course, the main thing most kids like about Fred is that there is an ongoing story being told throughout all the books. This keeps my son interested and engaged and helps math not be quite so dry.

One thing I will say is that once you get to Goldfish or Honey, your student might need to take a break from doing lessons in his textbook to focus on learning his multiplication facts for a little while. From Honey on, he will have much more success and much less frustration if he's able to recall those facts easily. "Fred" even encourages the reader to make what he calls "Honey cards," which are just multiplication flash cards, and to practice them often.

Unfortunately, my 14 year old needed more explanation than was offered at his level. He started Life of Fred in Algebra II during his first year of being homeschooled. I could have gone back to an earlier curriculum to give him the foundation he needed, but decided to switch to a different curriculum. He was really enjoying the way LoF teaches math, but he was struggling too much with the concepts and getting frustrated.

This haas been especially helpful in our first yr of homeschooling. My 4th grade son and 6th grade daughter love it.

We went all out with Life of Fred, purchasing the beginning set of A-G for our younger girls and the prealgebra and algebra for our middle/high schoolers. Things seemed to be going well at first. The books were fun and the kids looked forward to math,
Trouble began when the older kids hit concepts that I didn't immediately understand. Because of the setup of the books, there wasn't a way I could just go back and look at the directions and help them. I spent lots and lots of time searching other sites to try to learn. I contacted the publisher (through an email on the site) and never received an answer.
The books for the younger girls were okay until we began getting into some of the later books. I really questioned the way that concepts were introduced. I didn't think that it allowed for time for the girls to really "get it." And I could see that at times they could get through the On Your Own section but not really understand what they had done.
It just wasn't a good fit for us.

A five year old college math teacher may sound like a crazy premise for a math book, and it is. It is also inventive, fun, and full of imagination. However, don't think these books lack a solid math foundation. The math is solid, as are the science, art, and other subjects your student will encounter throughout Fred's story.

My 8 year old daughter has enjoyed getting to know Fred and his doll Kingie through Apples and Butterflies. The chapters are interesting and hold her attention. She is not yet ready to read the books independently, and we do the exercises orally. A more advanced reader could work on his own.

Each chapter has a few problems to work, and I do mean a few. There is no drill; there are not sections of practice, practice, practice. I have not used Fred long enough to know if that is a "con" or not, but it certainly is not the norm in a math book. Life of Fred works well in conjunction with other more "typical" math programs if you aren't quite ready to use it as a stand alone.

If there is one group of students who might struggle with the Fred series, it would be very concrete thinkers. I have one, and he has a difficult time focusing on the math principles in the story because he is distracted by Fred's improbable story. He is very interested in the new ideas introduced once he looks past the fact that Fred is only 5. It is almost as much an exercise in imagination as math for him.

The books themselves are well-made and hold their value. If your child is struggling with traditional math programs or if you are looking for something a bit different, Fred is definitely worth a try.

My son (11) uses this as his main math curriculum. He loves it. It gives the information in a story format which coincides well with his learning style. The question at the end of each chapter are called "your turn to play". There are usually just a few questions which also makes my son happy. He does not like to drill things he if can prove he understands the concept. My daughter (12) prefers more direct instruction without the story so this curriculum does not work for her.

Dr. Schmidt is wonderful about answer any questions by email or by phone. He really wants the students to independently work the math once they hit a certain age so he makes himself available to them.

I have used this with my own children in a limited way (they are only 1rst and 2nd) and with students I tutor. My tutoring students have all done really well with this program and enjoy learning the math with relative independence.

My 9-year-old daughter was really struggling with math. She didn't enjoy it and she didn't understand it. We decided to try Life of Fred and things changed almost immediately. She loves reading about Fred's antics and at the same time she's learning! We started with Apples in September. Now it's November and we're almost done with Dogs. We've been able to move through the books more quickly than suggested because she has most of the basic concepts already.